Reuven Dafni

Reuven Dafni (Hebrew: ראובן דפני‎‎; born Ruben Kandt; Zagreb, 1913 – 2005, Israel) was Croatian Partisan, Israeli soldier and diplomat, one of founders of kibbutz Ein Gev and longtime assistant director of the Yad Vashem memorial center.

Dafni was born on November 11, 1913 in Zagreb to a Croatian Jewish family with two siblings. Dafni studied in Vienna, where his father was a diplomat. He was an active athlete, member of the student union and a Zionist youth movement activist. In 1936, Dafni immigrated to Mandatory Palestine where he became one of the founders of kibbutz Ein Gev.

In 1940, he joined the British Army Jewish Brigade, with whom he fought against the Nazis in the North African Campaign and the Battle of Crete, in Greece. In mid-March 1944, with several other paratroopers, Dafni was dropped into the Yugoslav front and from there joined up with the partisans and kept radio contact with the Western Allies. Dafni spent six months in Croatia, and after the war he returned to his kibbutz.

In 1946, as a member of the Haganah, Dafni purchased weapons and raised funds for the purpose of defense in the United States. Bugsy Siegel was one of his contributors. In 1948, Dafni returned to the United States to help raise funds for the newly established State of Israel. That year he was appointed as the first Israeli consul in Los Angeles. From 1953 to 1956, he served as consul general of Israel in New York City. Later, he also served as consul general in Bombay, India, and also served as ambassador to Kenya and Thailand. For 13 years, from 1983–1996, Dafni served as assistant director of Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, in Jerusalem.

Dafni was married to Rina (née Grossman) with whom he had two children, a son, Yoram, and a daughter, Avital. After his wife's death, Dafni remarried twice.